Weekly Update - Friday, January 31, 2020

Happy Friday, everyone!
Can you believe it's already February?

MINDSET MATTERS! 

Black History Month:
Black History Month starts Monday.  As I stated in my email, we will spend some time this month exploring black leaders and their contribution(s) to society.  I sent the link out to some great YouTube video clips.  Please share these throughout the month.

Next year, the goal is to have students help design this month, as well as acknowledge other celebration months.

Unconscious Bias:
At our Staff Power Hour, we discussed monitoring your biases and microaggressions.  I'm checking in today - how's that going?  Have you connected with your accountability buddy?  If not, today is your day!

MCA Test Monitor Training:
We are offering two MCA Test Monitor Training sessions - March 3 (2:40-3:25) and March 5 (7:00-7:45).  We will need the following people to attend one of the training sessions:

• All 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Teachers (including EL & Special Education of those grades)
• All Special Education paraprofessionals who service students in grades 3-5 (at any point during your day)
• All Intervention teachers

Please let me know if you have questions of whether you should attend or not.

ACCESS Testing:
ACCESS testing starts the week of February 10 and runs for three consecutive weeks.  EL teachers have done a lot of work to create this schedule (thank you Laurie, Caryn, and Liz!).  Please know their flexibility is limited and they will not run a normal schedule during this time. Thank you! 

Building Weekly Newsletter:
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Weekly Update - Friday, January 24, 2020

Happy Friday!

Celebrating & Honoring Others:
On Monday, we took some time to celebrate our successes - personally, team, building, and as a District.  We left feeling grounded in our why and feeling positive about the work we are doing.  Have you continued this?  Are you honoring and celebrating those around you?  Honoring and celebrating yourself?  We have a lot to be thankful for - a lot! 

Winter Data Subouts:

We look forward to looking at evidence of learning and growth and talking about next steps for our students at sub-outs on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The schedule is linked here along with the agenda.

Just as a reminder, intervention certified staff attend these sub-outs as well, so their groups will be cancelled.  However, EAs will continue to meet with groups as normal.  

Please bring with you to the subout:

*Your device

*Any additional evidence of learning you will find helpful in determining next steps for students (reading records, anecdotal notes, phonemic awareness or decoding inventories/information).

*The growth sheet where you recorded student names (from a common planning time in the last week - some of you will do this on Monday).  

Service Awards:
Congratulations to the following staff and their years of service to the District -
Cindy Turley - 1 year
Nura Elmi - 5 years
Denise Carlson - 15 years

EL Position:
As many of you know, Laurie Wolhart is retiring at the end of the school year.  Laurie is an asset to our building - she will be greatly missed!  With her retiring, we have an opening.  If you know of someone who would be interested, please share the below posting with them!

https://www.applitrack.com/owatonna/onlineapp/JobPostings/view.asp?AppliTrackJobId=4888&FromAdmin=True

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Make it a great weekend, too!  Take care of yourself!
-Justin

Weekly Update - Thursday, January 16, 2020

Happy International Fun Day at Work!   Woo hoo!

Power Hour Follow-Up:
Thank you for a great learning session - and courageous conversation around biases & microaggressions.  I love when our staff comes together to continue to grow and learn!

A few of you have asked about the TED talk in which Verna Myers tells us to "walk toward our biases".  Below is the link if you'd like to watch (great video!).

Don't forget our Call to Action.  I've asked you to be reflective around your biases (why do you have the bias and how do you respond) and also start to look at your data with a race lens.   This is a personal journey, so just know I'm trusting this work will be done but not shared. 

Winter Data Subouts:
On January 28 & 29, teams will gather in the Learning Studio South to do some instructional planning using our winter data.  Classroom teachers will have subs - EL, Intervention, and Special Education are welcome, but will not have subs. 

Please take some time over the next week to look through your Fastbridge data.  Also, invite Libby and I to a common planning on the week of January 20th to discuss growth data (see my email from Monday). 

Absences:
As we enter the winter "yuck" season, please be aware of your absences.  As you know, we need you here.  However, I understand there are times that you need to be away (sick, family sick, etc).  Please be aware of your absences as we are having a harder time filling positions.  When we don't fill a position, we often have to interrupt interventions, EL, Special Education, and myself to cover the room.  I am not saying to not be gone - just be aware of the amount of time(s) you are taking off.  Thank you for your attention to this!

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend, everyone!  Stay warm!
-Justin

Weekly Update - Friday, January 10, 2020

Happy Friday!
A huge thank you to everyone for your support this week.  The texts, hugs, and messages helped me feel the McKinley love.   It's hard to lose a close grandparent... ugh!  Thank you, again! 

Winter FAST Benchmarking Data:
As you know, we are in process of collecting winter benchmarking data from our students.  At the end of the month (Jan 28-29), we will meet to triangulate this data to see what programming changes need to occur.   Please take some time before to look through your winter data over the next few weeks. 

December Office Referral Data:
Our McKinleyStrong Team met last night.  One of the things we discussed is our December Office Referral Data (ORD) - below.  Take some time to look through this and do some self-reflection with your work.  Are you seeing this with your students?   What are you doing to re-teach/support this behavior? 

Click here to access the December ORD

15 Ways to Bring Positive Language into Your Classroom:
A great read - and a great reminder of the power of our words! 
https://www.weareteachers.com/positive-language-in-the-classroom/

International Fun Day at Work:
International Fun Day at Work 2020 is next Thursday, January 16!  This will be a day of fun, games, and excitement at work!  You and your team can start planning your "outfit" for the day.  Also, please reserve 1:40-2:15 on this day for our adult challenges/assembly in the gym!  More information will come out this weekend on the specific events for the day! 

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Have a great weekend - and go Vikings!
-Justin